November 9, 2019 marks the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. This historic event is being commemorated throughout Germany. However, November 9 also marks the anniversary of the Reichspogromnacht. The admonition “Never again” is of significant topicality these days, when fascism is flourishing again, becoming increasingly normalized and has even found its way into German parliaments. Florian Zimmermann, President of the Humanist Association of Germany – Federal Association, explains: “It fills me with horror that 70 years after the Nuremberg Trials, inhuman violence is once again flaring up so strongly in Germany.”
The Amadeu Antonio Foundation has counted at least 198 victims of right-wing violence since 1990 – but experts believe that the number of unreported cases is much higher. The Federal Criminal Police Office reports a significant increase in xenophobic and anti-Semitic crimes in 2018. The attack on the synagogue in Halle was not the first of its kind – the list of attacks on Jews and Jewish institutions since 1945 is long.
“The fact that the NSU complex and its network of supporters have not even begun to be investigated, the right-wing extremist murder of District President Walter Lübcke, the death and enemy lists kept by right-wing extremists – this must finally shake us all up,” says Zimmermann. “The fact that the fascists of the AfD now sit in all German state parliaments and can openly propagate the expulsion and extermination of people, even longing for a civil war, shows that systematic persecution can be repeated in Germany.”
The problem should no longer be relativized and played down, as has been the case for many years, warns Zimmermann. Politicians must finally take decisive action against right-wing violence – this also applies to internal cases of right-wing extremism, e.g. in the German armed forces, the police and the Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
“We humanists must stand together against this development. We must take a loud and clear stance against misanthropy and right-wing extremism in society, including in our own private lives. It must never happen again like it did 81 years ago.”
